A large volcano eruption, such as the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption, can eject enough sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere to measurably cool the Earth. Will sulfur dioxide be the answer to global warming?
Intellectual Ventures is a think-tank company, and holder of over 20,000 patents of novel ideas such as using lasers to zap malaria carrying mosquitoes, and the Salter Sink, a device that floats on the ocean and re-circulates warm surface water to deeper, colder water, which, if placed in the path of an approaching hurricane would weaken its intensity.
Nathan Myhrvold is the founder of Intellectual Ventures, and he came originally from Microsoft. He has some ideas about curbing global warming: one of them is to build an 18 mile long flexible hose to spew sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere.
Why does he think this will work? According to Myhrvold, sulfur dioxide would absorb enough water vapor to form an aerosol cloud, blanketing the Earth and producing a cooling effect. He calls this cooling blanket Budyko’s Blanket, after the Russian scientist who first suggested the idea back in the mid 1970s.
How much sulfur dioxide are we talking about here?
About 34 gallons of sulfur dioxide per minute, discharged into the stratosphere, would be enough to effectively cool the entire Northern Hemisphere. Overall, it would take 100,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per year, a fraction of the 200 million tons that is already being discharged into the environment at ground levels.
Could this actually work? Myhrvold thinks so: he’d use helium balloons to raise the 18 mile long hose high into the sky, and small pumps spaced along its length would pump the sulfur dioxide along.
Critics say the plan is insane, and we need to concentrate on curbing emissions, not on “geoengineering.” Myhrvold counters that both approaches are needed; it is too late to think curbing emissions alone will be sufficient to reduce global warming.
